>

> From: "Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice \(E-mail\)"

> <fcpj@earthlink.net>

> Date: 2004/05/06 Thu PM 06:53:44 EDT

> To: <fcpj@earthlink.net>

> Subject: Report on abuse at Abu Ghraib prison from a Christian Peacemaker Team member in Iraq

>

> FCPJ Members and Friends,

>

> As we have been hearing much in the media recently about the abused

> Iraqi prisoners, I thought you would like to receive this report from

> a CPT volunteer on the scene. While we would all like to think of

> America and our military in the terms President Bush used in his

> interview with Arab language news outlets, we must confront the

> reality of these abuses by our military and look beneath the surface

> to see how this behavior could ever happen. This report seems to

> offer some understanding that could lead to preventing similar

> problems in the future.

>

> Bob Tancig

> Coordinator

> Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice

> PO Box 336

> Graham, Florida 32042

> 352-468-3295 (at the farm)

> 352-214-1778 (mobile)

> fcpj@earthlink.net

>

> I am forwarding you an article on the prison and torture situation in

> Iraq written by Sheila P. who was in training with us for CPT in

> Chicago and has been in Iraq since Dec. 2003.

>

> Rose and Haven It was posted on

> http:aol.beliefnet.com/story/145/story_14530.html

>

> Torture and Responsibility in Iraq

> The torture was perpetrated by good soldiers who have become

> dehumanized through combat stress and training.

>

> By Sheila Provencher

>

> (Last year, Beliefnet featured dispatches from pacifist Christians,

> members of Christian Peacemaker Teams, who went to Baghdad. A year

> later, many of those CPT members are still there, and new ones have

> arrived. They still send email dispatches to friends around the world.

> Here is the latest, filed in the wake of allegations of prisoner abuse

> by U.S. and British soldiers.)

>

> By now, most of you have seen the horrifying pictures of Iraqi

> prisoners being abused and ridiculed by U.S. and British soldiers.

> Because the bulk of my work with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in

> Iraq has focused on Iraqi detainees, I wanted to share some personal

> experiences and reflections about this.

>

> Looking at these degrading pictures, the question in the hearts of

> most Americans is, "How could young American men and women do such

> horrible things?" The gut response is "it must be an aberration. A few

> bad people." President Bush said as much when he stated that only a

> "few people" were to blame. (Reuters, May 2). He felt a "deep disgust"

> for the way the prisoners were treated, and asserted "That's not the

> way we do things in America" (CNN April 30). Brigadier General Mark

> Kimmett was even more forceful: "No. 1, this is a small minority of

> the military, and No. 2, they need to understand that is not the

> Army," said Kimmitt. "The Army is a values-based organization. We live

> by our values. Some of our soldiers every day die by our values, and

> these acts that you see in these pictures may reflect the actions of

> individuals, but by God, it doesn't reflect my army" (60 Minutes II,

> interview with Dan Rather).

>

> It is true that there ARE countless honorable soldiers who work in the

> military prisons in Iraq. One female officer in particular at Bucca

> prison camp in Um Qasr showed great compassion when CPT members talked

> with her about their concerns for a number of prisoners held without

> charge. This officer personally intervened on behalf of an innocent

> prisoner who tried to commit suicide because of his deep despair. Many

> Iraqis who tell us stories of degrading abuse also comment on the

> "noble soldiers" who protested such abuse and treated them with

> respect.

>

> However, the sheer number of allegations of mistreatment, many of

> which I have heard personally, suggests that the problem is not just a

> matter of a few "bad people." The problem is very broad. CPT has been

> documenting abuses within the detention system for nearly a year, and

> these photos, tragically, were not a surprise to me.

>

> For months now, we have communicated grave concerns about the

> detention system in several meetings with U.S. military and Coalition

> Provisional Authority (CPA) officials in Iraq, and with

> representatives in Congress.

>

> Does this mean that most soldiers are sadistic abusers, whose crimes

> equal those of Saddam? No, of course not. Every case I heard about

> abuse also included testimony about good and honorable soldiers. Dr.

> Ali, a professor at Baghdad University, was held without charges for

> 38 days last winter. Before taking him to prison, soldiers kept him in

> the Green Zone in a cage meant for animals, under the open sky, for

> three days and nights. But when he was at the airport prison, his

> guard befriended him and said, "I hope you will be freed."

>

>

> X, an elderly man from Baquba, was taken in a house raid last August

> and held for four months. He described numerous abuses: soldiers

> threatened him with attack dogs, made him stand for hours in the sun

> with water bottles a tantalizing distance away, and forced him to

> sleep on the bare ground. But he also told of a "noble soldier" who

> finally asked, "What crazy person imprisoned this old man? He could

> not even fire a weapon, the backfire would hurt him." Because of that

> soldier, the elderly man was freed.

>

> Other firsthand allegations of abuse I have heard: a man from Baquba

> told me "when the troops arrived last April, I was so overjoyed, I

> greeted them with flowers. But in August they imprisoned me." He said

> that he had his hands cuffed behind his back for 14 hours at a

> stretch, and also suffered water deprivation and beatings. His

> 15-year-old son was taken as well. Both were eventually released

> without charges. Another young man described how his elderly father

> suffocated and died of a heart attack as they both lay hooded and

> handcuffed in the back of a military vehicle. Still another young man

> brought us a hood with the slur "Wrongo Dongo Captain Stupid" written

> on it.

>

> Again, does this mean that the soldiers are sadistic, "bad people?"

> No. But this is what is so disturbing about the abuse: it is

> perpetrated by GOOD young men and women who have somehow become

> dehumanized enough, by training, combat stress, and neglect, to do

> these things. Therefore, the surface answer "this is just a few

> people" does not suffice. We need to look deeper, to ask, "How did

> this happen?" and "How can we prevent it from happening again?"

>

> When I witness the experience of the soldiers in Iraq, I see several

> sources for the patterns of abuse. First, consider the incredible

> stress of warfare. Soldiers are constantly under attack by any number

> of armed groups. I have some post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms

> simply from being near bombs and gunfire, but the soldiers are

> actually sitting in the tanks and humvees that might be bombed at any

> time by various militia groups.

>

> I have experienced mortars flying over the van as I rode along the

> highway, but the mortars actually landed near the watchtower manned by

> soldiers. To feel a constant threat to one's life, coupled with the

> psychological stress of being separated from home and family, is

> devastating. One soldier said to a CPTer, "I work 12 hours a day,

> seven days a week [at Abu Ghraib prison]. I can't take this anymore."

>

> The fact that so many soldiers do manage to maintain great integrity

> and courage under such stress is a testament to the inherent goodness

> of the people in the armed services. However, the stress of warfare

> creates conditions that lead too many soldiers to express their anger,

> fear, and frustration with abusive behavior.

>

> The military ideology that separates the world into "good guys" and

> "bad guys" (I constantly hear this language) sees all security

> detainees as potential "bad guys." If a soldier who has watched his or

> her friends die and who feels threatened all the time must take out

> his or her anger on someone, it is all too easy to abuse the "bad guy"

> nearest at hand, although that "bad guy" might very well be a

> 15-year-old boy scooped up in a house raid because his uncle was a

> suspected Baathist.

>

>

> Finally, the military's hierarchical structure encourages fierce

> loyalty and deference to superiors. These abuses do not happen in a

> vacuum: soldiers receive orders. During an interview with 60 Minutes

> II, one of the soldiers charged with abuse at Abu Ghraib stated that

> he never received training about the Geneva Conventions standards for

> humane treatment of prisoners, and that higher officers encouraged his

> abusive methods of interrogation.

>

> Many of the routine orders in Iraq involve behavior that many American

> people would consider abusive. For example, consider the following

> basic facts about the detention system in Iraq. A CPA official with

> whom I communicate regularly said that more than 35,000 Iraqis have

> been detained in the past year. More than 10,000 are still in prison.

> Under the 4th Geneva Convention, an occupying power can imprison

> "security detainees" without charge and without trial, indefinitely.

> All that is required is that the occupying power review each case

> every six months.

>

> The methods of detention chosen by senior military officers

> systematically cause great suffering for thousands of Iraqis. By their

> own admission, military officials have chosen to cast a wide net when

> hunting for insurgents. A CPA official said to a CPT colleague: "There

> are thousands of Iraqis in prison who should be at home right now."

>

> In order to capture one suspect, the Coalition forces arrest all of

> the male members of a household, during chaotic midnight raids that

> terrify entire families and sometimes end in the injury or death of

> women and children. I and other CPT colleagues documented a case in

> which Coalition forces arrested 83 out of 85 men and boys in the

> village of Abu Sifa, leaving the women and children to maintain all of

> the farming and other heavy work for months. Once the men are in

> detention, families find it extremely difficult to secure information

> about them, and do not know if they are alive or dead. The waiting

> period for visits can be up to five months. Many women and children

> who rely on the male breadwinner become homeless while he languishes

> in jail. Thousands of such detainees have eventually been released,

> without ever finding out what was the reason for their arrest.

>

> There are many Iraqis who are guilty of terrible violence: one only

> has to watch the daily news to hear of regular, lethal attacks on

> young soldiers. But the methods used to capture, imprison, and

> interrogate such Iraqis is so violent that the Coalition only creates

> more resisters.

>

> And the devastation to Iraqis is only part of the suffering. What

> about the psychological and spiritual devastation to the soldiers who

> witness and perpetrate acts of violence upon Iraqi detainees? Who will

> care for these soldiers when they come home? Who will change the

> military system so that this does not happen again?

>

> Please do not settle for the answers of Brig. General Mark Kimmett. He

> is right when he says that thousands of soldiers live by high values,

> and countless soldiers serve with great courage and honor. But the

> number of soldiers who are becoming dehumanized by a system based on

> violent force is not negligible. We are all responsible for them. We

> are all responsible for these actions. And so we must all be part of

> the healing.

>

>

>

> Sheila Provencher, a CPT member in Iraq, is a Catholic lay minister

> and full-time activist from South Bend, Indiana.

>

>

>

>

>